BT is exposing customers to unnecessary electromagnetic radiation through its network of private home Wi-Fi routers. In an environment of growing EMF electrosmog, the dangerously invisible nature of this environmental threat goes poorly recognised.
All BT Home Hubs are now enabled with a default feature called ‘BT Fon’. ‘Fon’ uses a portion of the broadband customer’s private wireless connection and offers it to the public for use as a local ‘hotspot’. In short, unless the customer actively opts out of ‘Fon’, their router is functioning as a local mast.
All the money from the somewhat secretive ‘Fon’ feature goes straight into BT’s pocket, the router owner receives nothing except participation in “WiFi for all!” as BT have decided to market their double-dip strategy.
On top of this, BT Smart Hubs emit two signals – this is known as ‘dual band’ – E.g. The BT Smart Hub 2 uses two frequency bands (2.4GHz and 5GHz) to provide a reliable wifi signal regardless of how close your device is to the router. This means you will be exposed to two sets of EMF frequency emissions.
Non-ionising frequencies – the facts:
WiFi is a radiofrequency (RF) which is classified as ‘non-ionising’. Non-ionizing radiation includes the spectrum of ultraviolet (UV), visible light, infrared (IR), microwave (MW), radio frequency (RF), and extremely low frequency (ELF).
Non-ionising is less dangerous than ionising. Ionising radiation is the energy produced from natural or artificial sources. It has more energy than non-ionising radiation, enough to cause chemical changes by breaking chemical bonds.
In general, there are two primary hazards to non-ionizing radiation; tissue heating (thermal effects) and photochemical reactions to the skin and retina of the eye. The hazard is dependent on the frequency. Unlike ionizing radiation, frequencies of the electromagnetic spectrum in the non-ionizing region cannot directly ionize particles and cause mutations.
RF waves don’t have enough energy to damage DNA directly, the way that ionizing waves do. Because of this, it’s not clear how RF radiation might be able to cause cancer. Some studies have found possible increased rates of certain types of tumors in lab animals exposed to RF radiation, but overall, the results of these types of studies have not provided clear answers so far.
A few studies have reported evidence of biological effects that could be linked to cancer, but this is still an area of research. For example, some studies have suggested that RF radiation might stress cells. This could lead to the creation of reactive oxygen species inside the cells, which can damage DNA. However, other studies have found that RF radiation might protect cells from DNA damage.
BT Fon: A lack of informed consumer consent?
The BT Infinity system, like other similar BT, Virgin etc systems, comes with wifi automatically enabled, but it does allow you to go into the hub and turn off your own wifi access so that you use only wired, ethernet connections. But, within that hub there is a second connection – the one which connects you with the hot-spot network – and turning off your own internal wifi connections does not disconnect you from the hotspot network.
Now, of itself, there is nothing wrong with this. But what is wrong with it is that BT do not make this clear to you. They do not tell you, when you sign up for Infinity, that you will be automatically connected (opted in) to their hot-spot network (BT Openzone); they do not tell you that turning off your own internal wifi does not disconnect you from the Openzone network and, even if you are techie enough to have got this far, they do not tell you how to disconnect yourself from that network. Well, they do but in such an obscure and roundabout way that, unless you had spent two hours scanning the site and knowing exactly what you were looking for (as I just have) you would never find it. See below **
What does BT have to say about Fon?
“BT Fon was the residential offering, where people joined Fon and agreed to share the unused portion of their internet connection in exchange for a world of free WiFi. BT Openzone was in public areas such as airports.
BT Wi-fi is born: BT Fon and BT Openzone hotspots are now under one roof called BT Wi-fi. This means Fon members still get the same incredible unlimited access across the UK and full access to the more than 6 million Fon hotspots across the world. In order to simplify the branding, we changed BT Openzone to BT WiFi and BT Fon to BT WiFi with Fon.”
Corporate greed leads to a public health threat
‘Fon’ transmits for a distance of approximately 250 metres* and exposes the user to higher levels of radiation exposure. Whereas domestic Wi-Fi routers can be turned off at night or when not in use to reduce exposure, these Fon hubs are active 24/7. For comparison, the average wireless router has a range of 150 feet (46 meters) indoors and 300 feet (92 meters) outdoors
Many international bodies are now warning of the risks to health from the ubiquitous use of Wi-Fi and some European countries have taken a precautionary stance by removing it from schools and public spaces. References 1,2,3,4,5,6,7.
Some people are particularly sensitive to this form of radiation and suffer immediate acute symptoms such as headache, sleep disturbance, fatigue, heart palpitations/arrhythmia, etc. For others, the effect is chronic and may result in long term cell and tissue damage leading to cancer. Last year, the updated Bioinitiative Report reviewed a further 1800 studies and noted that the most serious health end points from electromagnetic exposure included leukaemia, brain tumours, leakage of the blood-brain barrier and increased risk of the neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The Childhood Cancer Conference in 2012 reported that exposure to electromagnetic fields may also impede recovery and stated that it appeared to decrease the survival time of children in remission from leukaemia.
Ways to reduce exposure to electromagnetic radiation:
- Disable BT Fon Note: BT ‘hotspot’ hubs need careful deactivation as BT frequently updates and reactivates the connection, via the phone line, to maintain the ‘hotspot’.
- Turn Wi-Fi off and use hard wired broadband points, or a dLan system plug to connect computers via domestic wiring.
- Use your smartphone in a ‘smart’ way – don’t carry in pocket next to heart or genitals, put in aeroplane mode, not silent, when not in use.
- Use aeroplane mode on ipads, iphones when children are playing on them.
- Refuse a smart meter. www.stopsmartmeters.org.uk
References:
1. The BioInitiative Report 2012, www.bioinitiative.org/
2. The World Health Organization Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), 2011, http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/pr/2011/pdfs/pr208_E.pdf
3. The Council of Europe, May 2011, ww.powerwatch.org.uk/pdfs/20110506-council-of-Europe-emfs-edoc12608.pdf
4. Freiburg Appeal 2012. 1000 doctors signed the Freiburg Appeal in 2002.
5. Prof. Dominique Belpomme, President, ARTAC (French cancer research organization), September 2010: “There is a proven link between electromagnetic fields, cancer and leukaemia”.
6. The American Academy of Environmental Medicine 2012 Position Paper “Multiple studies
correlate RF exposure with diseases such as cancer, neurological disease, reproductive disorders, immune dysfunction, and electromagnetic hypersensitivity.” http://aaemonline.org/emf_rf_position.html
7. International Society of Doctors for the Environment (ISDE) and Irish Doctors’ Environmental Association (IDEA) “there is sufficient scientific evidence to warrant more stringent controls on the level and distribution of electromagnetic radiation [EMR. http://www.env-health.org/news/members-news/article/isde-idea-statement-on
8. http://www.emfwise.com/ehs.php
9. http://www.powerwatch.org.uk/news/20120423-childhoodcancer2012-conference.asp
*Figure quoted is ‘n’ technology average, reference, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n-2009 Exact distances will depend on landscape and network of hubs.
thuleanindependent.wordpress.com 